For Greater Productivity Stop Interrupting Yourself With Karen Tiber Leland

Today I want to talk about something that universally impacts our productivity: self-interruption. 

If you work in an office, it’s obvious that other people are sources of interruption. While those may be less of a productivity problem when working from home – kids, friends, partners, and even pets can easily provide sources of distraction – interruptions by others are only a part of the story. A great deal of the interruptions we experience are self-interruptions. 

Here are a few of the most common ways this happens. 

• You are working on a project and suddenly remember an item to add to your to-do list. You stop what you are doing to write it down - or worse, you stop to do it. 
• An idea pops into your head and you start exploring it on the Internet - stop what you were doing and shift your attention to the thoughts circling your brain. 
• You get a ping on your social media and go down the rabbit hole of reading recent posts - an immediate productivity killer. 

According to one study, 40% of the time when we’re interrupted we don’t return to the original task and instead wander off in a new direction. For the sake of productivity in these challenging times, here are four easy tips to greater productivity and avoiding self-interruption.

Four tips to enjoy greater productivity by staying focused and on task, and by avoiding Self-Interruption

• Block out your calendar to focus on a particular project — 20 to 45 minutes is optimal. Make a commitment to ONLY work on that project during that time.
• Time yourself — if your ability to focus has diminished, timer apps can help keep you focused on one thing at a time. I usually set mine for 15 minutes at a time and commit to doing nothing else but what I have planned for that period. 
• Keep pen and paper at the ready — this way when an idea pops in, you won’t have to remember it, but you can also steer clear of putting it into an electronic device, which can lead to more distractions.
• Do your hardest task later in the day — a recent study showed that contrary to popular belief, self-interruptions tend to diminish as the day progresses.

Tweetables and Quotes on Productivity

Self-interruption involves stopping a task before it’s finished because you’ve switched your focus to a different task or you’ve gotten distracted by something. @KarenFLeland

According to a study by Gloria Mark, 40% of the time when we’re interrupted we don’t return to the original task and instead wander off in a new direction. @KarenFLeland

To stop interrupting yourself, try blocking out a defined window of time on your planner to focus on a particular project. @KarenFLeland

If your ability to focus has diminished in direct proportion to the way you use social media, timing apps can really help strengthen your attention span. @KarenFLeland

My 10th book — No Nonsense: Time Management: 50 Tips to Hack Your Time and Get Everything Done — will be out on December 31st, pre-order it today. @KarenFLeland

Always keep pen and paper at the ready, it’ll help you be quick about jotting down notes and it’ll keep you away from electronic distractions. @KarenFLeland

About Karen Tiber Leland

Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding, marketing, and color strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business, and team brands. Her clients include Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally-publi